Debra E. Weese-Mayer, M.D. is the Beatrice Cummings Mayer Professor in Pediatric Autonomic Medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and Chief of the first Center for Autonomic Medicine in Pediatrics (CAMP) at Lurie Children’s Hospital. Dr. Weese-Mayer is recognized internationally for her clinical and research work in the emerging discipline of pediatric autonomic medicine and is a lead translational researcher at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital and the Stanley Manne Children’s Research Institute. She is recognized internationally for her expertise as a leader in clinical and research advances in respiratory and autonomic disorders of infancy, childhood, and adulthood (RADICA)--including Rapid-onset Obesity with Hypothalamic Dysfunction, Hypoventilation, and Autonomic Dysregulation (ROHHAD), Rett Syndrome, Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), Congenital Central Hypoventilation Syndrome (CCHS), and Familial Dysautonomia. She has authored more than 250 peer-reviewed articles, reviews, chapters, and abstracts. Her clinical and research programs have grown to include a wide-ranging referral base (48 states; 50 foreign countries). Dr. Weese-Mayer was awarded the March of Dimes Jonas Salk Health Leadership Award in Research for 2005. She patented a genetic test to diagnose CCHS, allowing early confirmation of diagnosis, and prenatal testing (patent proceeds support CCHS research). Dr. Weese-Mayer’s long term career objectives are to 1)build the model Pediatric Autonomic Medicine section---with wholly innovative protocols and technology for in and out-patient application; 2)develop norms for all age groups, ethnicities, and by gender for pediatric-friendly autonomic testing protocols; 3)expand the Centers of Excellence in CCHS and ROHHAD; 4)identify the genetic or epigenetic basis of ROHHAD, SIDS, and stillbirth; 5)advance the Neurocristopathy Consortium to expand knowledge of rare disorders in the context of related disorders to improve visibility of Rare Disease Medicine and value of study of rare diseases to understand basic systems in health; 6)non-invasive study of the maturation of the autonomic nervous system from perinatal origins, through pediatrics, and into adulthood, with aim to relate the maturational trajectory of (dys)regulation to outcome and health risk; 6)build a cross University Autonomic Medicine Department that includes prenatal origins through senescence in its overall domain; and 7)train the next generation of experts in respiratory and autonomic control.

Dr. Weese-Mayer is recognized internationally for her clinical and research work in the emerging discipline of pediatric autonomic medicine and is a lead translational researcher at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital and the Stanley Manne Children’s Research Institute. Dr. Weese-Mayer’s research and clinical work focuses on respiratory and autonomic disorders of infancy, childhood, and adulthood including Rapid-onset Obesity with Hypothalamic Dysfunction, Hypoventilation and Autonomic Dysregulation (ROHHAD), Rett Syndrome, Congenital Central Hypoventilation Syndrome (CCHS), Familial Dysautonomia, and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). Her collaboration with the Rogers group and a growing number of other talented specialists within Northwestern University is expanding focus to non-invasive study of the maturation of the autonomic nervous system from perinatal origins, through pediatrics, and into adulthood, with aim to relate the trajectory of (dys)regulation to outcome and health risk.

Dr. Weese-Mayer's clinical focus includes patients with rare neurocristopathies (Rapid-onset Obesity with Hypothalamic Dysfunction, Hypoventilation, and Autonomic Dysregulation (ROHHAD) and Congenital Central Hypoventilation Syndrome (CCHS)), patients with more common diseases that include a component of autonomic dysregulation, and patients who might benefit from thoracoscopic phrenic nerve-diaphragm pacer implantation.